Scott Goodson is a co-founder
of the global
marketing firm StrawberryFrog,
and he has
worked with leading
worldwide brands, including
Ikea, Pfizer,
Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Mitsubishi, Smart,
and Microsoft. In Uprising, he argues that
“movement marketing” is the best—and perhaps
only—way for companies to connect
with consumers in the age of social media,
and when done effectively the interaction between
companies and consumers can lead to
positive social change.

Goodson has written two books: one on
how marketers can engage groups with
shared passions, beliefs, and ideas to sell
products and develop brands; and one on
how marketers can help foster cultural and
social movements “to build a better, fairer,
more sustainable, and more interesting
world.” Goodson avoids the contradictions
inherent in this argument—i.e., can corporate
branding and consumption really lead
to sustainability?—but he does provide
strong, practical tips for how corporate and
nonprofit brands can connect with people
in an increasingly global, technologically
connected age.

Goodson cites Clay Shirky, Seth Godin,
and other marketing and communications
experts in declaring that the old way of
marketing—pitching a product to the largest
possible audience through mass media—is
dying. He argues that the best way to reach
people is to look for topics and causes
around which they are already gathering and
align one’s brand with those topics or
causes. This inverts the old marketing process;
companies need to start with what is
going on in the culture, rather than focus on
their product or service. Goodson lays out
his thesis in the first and last chapters of the
book and provides a persuasive and entertaining
history of the shift from the old marketing
model to the new one in Chapter 2.
In Chapters 3 to 7 he details the changes
driving this new model and how to put it
into practice. Throughout, Goodson provides
dozens of short case studies about for-profit
and nonprofit campaigns he offers as
examples of movement marketing.

Goodson distinguishes the new movement
marketing model from the old model:
“Instead of marketing and advertising being
focused on the individual, marketers must
learn to understand and relate to people in
interconnected groups; instead of convincing people to believe an ad message, marketers
must try to tap into what it is that
people already believe and care about; instead
of being focused on selling, the way to
connect with movements is to be dedicated
to sharing; instead of controlling the message,
marketers must learn to relinquish
control and let the movement do
what it will with that message;
perhaps most radical of all, companies
and brands must learn to
stop talking about themselves
and to join in a conversation that
is about anything and everything
but their product.”

Goodson’s concept of “movement”
could be tighter. He anchors
his definition in people
gathering around what Shirky calls “shared
endeavors.” Goodson notes that not all
movements are culturally or politically momentous,
like the civil rights, women’s, and
environmental movements, but he often discusses
cultural movements, social movements,
and “purposeful” movements without
clearly distinguishing among them.

Though Goodson’s aim seems primarily
to revolutionize corporate marketing, social
sector enterprises may benefit the most
from Uprising. Ironically, the most compelling
examples of movement marketing
Goodson offers are nonprofits and social
enterprises, for which the cause, the movement
itself, is the brand—for example,
Charity: Water, Aging in
Place, and DIY.

When Goodson turns to corporate
marketing, he is not as
persuasive that branding campaigns
add up to movements.
Pepsi’s Refresh campaign, one of
Goodson’s most cited cases, attracted
more than 76 million votes for community
improvement
ideas submitted by consumers, but
the campaign seems more cause marketing
and prize philanthropy than a movement.
Jim Beam’s Bold Choice campaign and Microsoft’s
IdeaWins campaign appeal to individual
dreams of growing a small business
or finding fulfillment in an encore career,
but likewise lack a movement’s shared endeavor.
Toms Shoes is a more complicated
case. The company’s marketing strategy for
selling its product is to tap people’s interests
in being, or feeling, philanthropic. (Every
pair of shoes sold leads to a pair donated.)
Toms’ distribution of shoes and
eyeglasses to people in need is a great contribution—but again, is it a movement?

Corporate engagement marketing of the
kind shown in most of Goodson’s examples
is certainly an improvement over the old
marketing model, and it may be valuable in
itself. But I could not escape feeling that for
something to be more than niche marketing,
there must be an appeal to some shared goal
as well as to social change.

Still, Goodson is undeniably right in
observing the rise in the number of people
seeking connection to shared passions
through, and perhaps because of, technology.
Uprising will help both corporate and
social sector leaders seeking to connect
their brand or cause to people who share a
mutual passion, and we all will benefit if
Goodson succeeds in persuading more companies
to support movements for good.

Peter Manzo is president and CEO of United Ways
of California, which advocates policy change and
community impact to improve health, education, and
financial stability for low-income families; he contributes
to the SSIR blog.